FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- As Jason McCourty has transitioned to the New England Patriots after last week's trade knowing he will be able to play alongside his twin brother Devin, it has almost been like taking a trip back in time to his days with the Valley Cottage Indians.

"With this opportunity, you think back to being 10-years-old, waking up early to head to a Pop Warner game," Jason told reporters on an introductory conference call Tuesday.

"Back then I can remember us waking up early -- we played our games Sunday morning -- and we'd go outside and go over all of the plays that we had in for the day. One of us was the running back, the other one handing off or throwing passes. We'd push each other to succeed together. Those are some of the [most fun] memories when it comes to football, just being able to be out there playing free and having fun."

One difference these days is that McCourty won't be living under the same roof as his brother, but they'll probably be close by as he works through exiting a lease in Cleveland and finding a spot for his wife Melissa and their three kids in Massachusetts.

The brothers, who are on the cusp of becoming the first twins to play for the same professional football team since 1926, have long hoped to team up but figured the opportunity had passed after 2017 when Jason was cut by the Titans and landed in Cleveland.

"The timing obviously didn't make sense for New England," Jason explained, before detailing how he learned of his trade to the Patriots last week.

"I got the call that I was going to be released and told [Devin] and my wife. [Devin] told me he texted [linebackers coach Brian Flores] and was like 'How do we get Jay to New England?' And he was like 'I'm going to hit up Bill [Belichick] about it.' But I think at that point, the trade was already in the process. So then I get a FaceTime from Dev when I was working out and he was like, 'Don't worry about it, we're going to trade for you. You're coming to New England.' I thought he was joking around. Probably about five minutes later, I got a call from John Dorsey, the GM in Cleveland, and he was like 'I have some news for you. We're not going to release you. We're going to trade you to New England.'"

As for how the twins see the game differently, Jason said, "That's probably one of the most intriguing [things] about teaming back up at this point. We went through all those years of playing football together, and now you're almost a decade later; through different experiences you've see the game over the last nine years through two different lenses. So it's going to be really interesting for us to see, sitting in meeting rooms, being on the practice field, of how we see things and how differently we see them, or how much alike. That's probably going to be intriguing for the coaches as well. I think the one really cool thing is we're probably each other's biggest fans and biggest critics. So I'm very interested to see how much we can push each other to become better leaders, better players, and the whole nine [yards]."